Minnesota Dreamin’

“It should be an adventure.  A test of our coping and resilience.” 
(Fran Bukrey)

I quoted a friend at the start of this post because I feel that, especially these days, any travel is an adventure and a test of coping and resilience! And I suspect this increases with age simply because if one is very comfortable and content with ones every day life there is no real impetus to get out of the routine. But we also know that routine can be a euphemism for rut, and staying there indefinitely is not good. I flew to Minnesota on April 24 and will fly back to California on May 8. So because of all the arrangements, eg reservations for getting to and from airports, reservations for shuttles and cars and hotels, it is daunting and tiresome. However when one is successful there is this feeling of “I did it! I can still do it!” And I have to say that when I finally get back to my splendid, vacant, unsold condo it is a great relief, despite a very bare bones and Spartan life (mostly because I have no TV here).

So I am back in my condo for two weeks and catching up on things with neighbors and friends and relatives. It is still very chilly here in MN, but at least the snow is gone except for the big dirty heaps where the plows had to dump it two weeks ago. The Mississippi is in it’s usual fabulously wild spring-time splendor as I view it from my condo. After a rather busy day yesterday with my cabinet maker installing knobs on my bathroom cabinet, an electrician installing new LED lights in two ceiling fixtures, a trip to RadioShack for DISH TV brochures (some owners here are switching to DISH because Charter/Spectrum Service has been failing and company says our building has to be re-wired), shopping for a few essentials at Walmart, I was tired and feeling a bit under the weather. And I was cold! But Alas, when I tried to reset my furnace thermostat it read “ lo battery.” Of course it needed AAA batteries and I had only AA batteries on hand. Go figure. So, freezing, I went to bed early.

So now it’s a new day and I hope to scrounge a few AAA batteries from a neighbor who will, hopefully, help me reset my thermostat. I can never quite manage it and she has one just like it so knows how to do it.

Local high school kids are colorfully populating the park for a few hours for prom pictures, a tradition here. It’s always too chilly for those fancy dresses but they manage. I think today will be a lazy one for me, and if I get my thermostat reset that will be my success for the day. I have my iPhone and iPad and Macbook with me but, unfortunately, it seems I left my laptop power cord/charger on my desk at home! So with only 33% of the battery left on my laptop I will not be able to use it unless I buy an expensive new power cable at Best Buy in St. Cloud, about 35 miles away. Darn! Being here without a TV, getting online with my laptop is  comforting  way to get clips of MSNBC shows I am addicted to. (OK OK OK! I admit it! So there!)

Time to go check the news, read a book, and, if I feel ambitious about some healthy exercise, bundle up for a sunshiny walk in the Park along the edge of the mighty Mississippi.

Sent from my iPad

Life after Facebook?

Yes. There is life after Facebook. At least as long as I have Messenger and Twitter.   They say young people have moved on from FB to Instagram and other platforms, leaving it to “old people.”  So maybe I am prescient, and not just an angry protester? Does not really matter.

I do now have to check my impulse to post pics on FB. And I am working on what to do with that, since photography is a great love of mine and this era of iPhone digital pics has made it so easy.

So here is my point: I am surviving. But I do miss seeing friends stuff on FB. And I had noticed that FB had changed over time and was making me wade through lots of interesting links just to find what friends posted. So I am realistic enough to know that some of my select few FB friends might miss my posts, and others barely notice I’m gone, I am hoping Mark Zuckerberg notices enough to actually fix the major flaw in his billion dollar baby.

Zuckerberg is, I think, a good guy and smart. And he had begun to follow the philanthropic example of Buffet and Gates. That is good. But now we wait to see if and when and how well he corrects course. He owes us that yesterday.

In the meantime, I try to forgive the fact that I and FB users have been used and sold out to nefarious, greedy and corrupt entities. But I cannot forgive anything of mine being sold to theTrump crime family.

Life after Facebook?